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A huge iceberg broke off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica, aerial video released on Friday (February 26) showed, almost 10 years after s…
It wonât be enough to help the state out of its deep rainfall deficit. Most Bay Area cities and Los Angeles have received about 40% of their normal rainfall totals, and only a month remains in the stateâs winter rainy season, which typically ends around the beginning of April.
Typically, December, January, February and March are the four wettest months of the year in California.
A year like this one hasnât happened often since California became a state. The seven-month period from July 1 to the end of February has been the seventh driest in San Francisco in the past 172 years, since 1849, when records began. And over the same time, the Northern Sierra Nevada, which is key to the stateâs water supply, is suffering through it sixth driest season, according to calculations from Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate
Despite recent storms, California’s dismal snowpack raises worry of dry year ahead By Kurtis Alexander
State water surveyors who trekked into the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday found exactly what they expected: little snow and long odds of anything but a dismally dry year ahead.
Despite last week’s pounding snowstorm, which hammered roads with days of whiteouts and delivered to ski slopes as much as 10 feet of fresh powder, this month’s statewide snowpack measured just 70% of average.
The reading was better than a month ago, when the gauges read a paltry 52% of average. But the bump, while big, still leaves California water managers unlikely to meet everyone’s needs in the coming year.
Despite recent storms, California s dismal snowpack raises worry of dry year ahead
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A Department of Water Resources team on Wednesday checks the weight of a snow sample at Phillips Station.Michael Macor / Special to the ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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This month’s statewide snowpack is measuring at 70% of average, even with last week’s snowstorm.Michael Macor / Special to the ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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Donner Lake is rimmed by new snow in the Sierra Nevada on Saturday in Truckee. Despite last week’s storm, the state’s snowpack remains below average.Elias Funez / Associated PressShow MoreShow Less
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Will the storm move the drought needle?
What the rain means for drought conditions
It may be too soon to tell if the current rain storm can inch out a drought. Water officials say the atmospheric river is bringing much-needed moisture.
SAN FRANCISCO - Bay Area water agencies, starved for snow and rain, are encouraged by this week s storm system.
But managers say it’s too early to say if it will have a lasting impact. This storm has made a very nice difference, we re not out of the woods, but it s a nice difference, said Steve Ritchie, Assistant General Manager for Water Enterprise for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.